Sunday - May 06, 2007

Last post.

Thursday - March 01, 2007

Office Space meets The Office at My Office

I have a reputation at work for being a fan of
The Office. I also have a lot of Office Space memorabilia on my desk. One of my
coworkers thought it would be funny to combine my two interests. Here's what I
found on my desk this
morning:

It
was very nicely done, with the Initech logo proudly placed at the
top:

To
make things even better, I took off my jacket to reveal that I was wearing my
Dunder-Mifflin shirt to celebrate the fact that it was
Thursday:

My
manager keeps telling me that I need to expand my interests beyond office humor
and get a hobby. Perhaps this is proof.

Thursday - March 01, 2007

Headphone$

One of my coworkers was carefully tracking a
package all day. Finally, at the end of the day, his large box arrived. We
figured maybe it was another amplifier for his pimped-out workstation. The guy
even has a headphone amplifier.

Inside
the large box was a smaller box. Inside the smaller box, a case. Inside the
case, some very expensive headphones. I'll keep the exact price and the owner's
identity a secret for his own
safety.

Sunday - February 25, 2007

Samsung Challenge: Type your phone number without typing anything

I got this error on Samsung's website after
entering my phone number with hyphens, just like millions of people do every
day. But according to the error message the hyphens aren't the only problem.
Samsung wants me to have a phone number without any characters at all. A phone
number with no numbers. Hmm.

In the end
I didn't order anything... after shipping & taxes, the iPod cable I was
thinking about would have cost over $50. I think I'll stick to my current $5
solution that does almost the same
thing.

Sunday - February 11, 2007

Quick Slideshows in OS X

I was recently asked to show a bunch of pictures
that I had in a folder, and got to use one of the features of OS X that most
regular users don't know about.

If you
have a folder filled with pictures and want to look at all of them, right now,
and even have a slideshow, it's really
easy.

1. Open the folder containing the
pictures you wish to view.2. Select the
pictures.
⌘-a to
select all if you want to look at all of
them.3. Right-click (or ctrl-click) on one
of the images and select
Slideshow.

Now
your images will begin playing full-screen as a slideshow. Move the mouse, and
a few icons will appear that allow you to access other special
functions.

And if you're wondering how
to type that symbol I used in Step 2:1. Go
to the
Edit
menu and select Special
Characters.2. View:
All
Characters3.
Symbols
-> Technical
Symbols.

Saturday - February 03, 2007

Super Bowl

Saturday - January 27, 2007

On Lunch

A lot of times when I'm in a store out here, I
hear about employees being "on lunch." The idea of a lunch break is not foreign
to me, but I often hear this at night, when it is not even close to lunch time.
So if it's just a break, why not call it being "on break," you Californian
weirdos?

Wednesday - January 24, 2007

Physics

Saturday - January 20, 2007

Best Buy

A couple of
notes:

Q: What's the difference between
a 6-ft 1/8" audio cable and a 6-ft 1/8" audio cable with the word "iPod" on the
box?A:
$7.

I decided to go ahead and sign
up for their bonus card thing, even though I am totallyagainstthat.
When the cashier asked for my first name, he was relieved to hear that it is
Michael, because "that's easy to spell." He typed in "Micheal," which I've come
to know as Comcast's version of my name. I considered not even giving him my
real last name.

Monday - January 15, 2007

Circuit City Rebates are a Scam

Yeah, I know, rebates are a really shady business
scheme to begin with, but I wanted to save some money, I played by the rules,
and I lost.

When I moved into my
apartment and was looking for Internet access, I went with Comcast via Circuit
City because they had the best deal going. I got a rebates on the modem and
router, the promotional subscription price from Comcast, and a gift card from
Circuit City. At least that's what I was supposed to
get.

I believe the deal was something
like this:$20 rebate on
modem$40 (or was it $80?) rebate on
router$50 (I think) Circuit City gift
card

It's hard to remember the details,
because this was six months ago. I remember that I did have to send in several
forms, sales receipts, and even copies of my Comcast bill. It was all done on
paper (why???) and a big pain. What I ended up getting out of all of this was
absolutely nothing. I entered my information for months on
http://www.ccityrebates.com/ without even getting a confirmation that they
received my forms until October, when I was told that the $20 rebate for the
modem was on its way and should arrive within 30 days. It never arrived, and I
never received any other updates on the rebates or gift cards. And now I feel
like an idiot for shopping there.

Oh
and don't get me started on the cashier who rang up an HDTV on my bill (which I
wanted) and then was surprised when I asked where to pick it up. She pointed to
the antenna that I was holding (which cost about 25 times less than the TV) and
said that I was holding it in my hand. And yes, the antenna was also on the
receipt. I actually thought she was joking until she called the manager
over.

Tuesday - January 09, 2007

Wouldn't it be cool if...

Wouldn't it
be great if there was an easy way to sync your bookmarks, live, across browsers?
No importing, no having to close the app, no toolbars. I guess there'd have to
be a standard. So please, browser folks, play
nice.

Also, wouldn't it be cool if
Apple made a phone? Well, turns out it's awesome. I'm saving up to get
one on launch.

Tuesday - January 09, 2007

Actual Quote

After taking off from London, flying around for 2
hours, landing in London due to computer problems, taking off
again
and landing in London
again,
and having to go back through customs upon exiting the plane, which was still in
London:

Tuesday - December 12, 2006

Spelling

Saturday - December 09, 2006

The Cartscalator

I went to the Sunnyvale Target earlier this week
to pick up some photos. It was my first time in a two-story Target. This doesn't
sound amazing at first, as there are many multi-story stores in this country.
Just go to a department store in any mall. But, when you're at Target, you are
usually accompanied by a cart. So how do you get upstairs? Well, you take the
escalator, but right beside you, the cart takes the
cartscalator.
It's simply amazing.

And yes, I am also
fascinated by the incredible cart dispenser at IKEA. It makes that cool
pstchssshhhhh
sound.

Wednesday - December 06, 2006

On Target...

I went to Target tonight to pick up a $10 gift
for a holiday party gift exchange thing. Ten bucks gets you pretty far at
Target, so I walked out with penguin-themed salt and pepper shakers as well as a
penguin mug for $9.71. I guess I could throw 29¢ in the mug to make it
fair, but I can always right that difference off as "shipping and
handling."

But anyway, the reason this
is blog-worthy (can you tell I have strictcriteria?)
is that when I got to the checkout station, the cashier exclaimed, "Oh I love
those penguins!" and started talking to another cashier about how cute they were
and how she was going to take them home as decorations, but not put salt and
pepper in them. Now there is nothing wrong with it, as I must admit I have great
taste when it comes to cute penguins, but all I could think about was that SNL
sketch (sorry for the MySpace link) where the cashier wants to
purchase products that she sees her customers buying. I'm easily
amused, so I was having a hard time preventing myself from laughing as
the penguins were being wrapped up.

Monday - December 04, 2006

Moving Day

Good, it
worked. Tonight I finally moved my iBlog data over to my Macbook Pro.
As I'm sure the Internet is pleased to hear, this should almost certainly mean
the start of more frequent blog entries by yours truly. The reason for this is
that my laptop, unlike my desktop, which used to be the controller of my blog,
can be easily operated from my couch. My couch is the center of my apartment. I
can see the TV from there. I can surf the Internet. There's a coffee table so I
can eat. And, if I'm feeling especially lazy, I can even sleep there. My
desktop, on the other hand, is at my desk, which is far away from the couch. And
by far
away, I mean
beyond arm's
length. Since it is so far away, I've been
neglecting any work that requires applications or data hosted on the desktop,
including blogging, podcasting, and video production. Now blogging can be taken
off the list, but Podcast Maker, Photoshop, and Final Cut Studio still reside on
the desktop, which is why those YouTube
videos I've promised only receive about 10 minutes of attention each
week. Maybe I'll finish them next weekend... but I've been saying that for over
a month.

Monday - December 04, 2006

Blog Check

Sunday - November 19, 2006

Quick Tip - USB Audio

I have a USB headset that I use with iChat,
Skype, and iMovie, and sometimes I have trouble getting the audio output to come
through the headphones when I first plug it in. A simple solution if you have
trouble with your USB audio device is to plug it in, go to the
Sound
control panel in System Preferences, and then simply check and then uncheck the
Output volume's
Mute
checkbox.